74 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES

versed with the situation in that trade will disabuse the
inquirer. The causes are very much more complex than
appear on the surface. For example, the building material
problem is one of the difficulties involved. Brick, before the
war, was approximately $6 a thousand. It went to $32 a
thousand last July and now is $16 a thousand and difficult
to get at that. Owing to war conditions labor has flocked
from the industry to the factories and no new apprentices
have appeared to take their place. The scandalous inefficiency
of the individual workman is partly caused by this exodus.
[n this industry we have also to face the fact that the employees
 owe loyalty to no one employer but are constantly
shifting from one to another and that the whole employment
system is very badly organized. Conservative labor leaders
of the building trades are just as much alarmed over the
situation as the employers. The difficulty of securing loans
is another complicating factor. I merely instance this situation
 in the building trade to illustrate by one example the
complexity of conditions that prevail in almost every industry,
 and to indicate that, however important a factor wage
readjustment may be, wage reduction alone will not solve
our problems.

Doctor Eliot, in the same connection, said:
[ agree with what Mr. Lewisohn has just said about the
necessity, under present circumstances, of proceeding slowly
in regard to the reduction of wages. The reduction is, of
course, inevitable before we can recover a satisfactory condition
 in our industries. But, fortunately, there are a good
many other things that can be done to improve the present
product in our industries, and to increase the total output
without reducing wages immediately.

Many employers are protecting themselves from loss by
running their factories on half time, or two-thirds time, without
 reducing wages, in the hope that by this process they can
keep their force together, and sell their diminished product